Peanuts constitute an important foodstuff and are often employed as a material ingredient in end products for their substantial food value (e.g., substantial protein and oil content). However, peanut hearts or germs have an extremely bitter taste. Thus, peanut heart material is normally discarded in commercial food processing so as to limit or eliminate significant levels of peanut heart materials in end products because of consumers' preferences for non-bitter food products. Moreover, a bitter tasting substance can often be sensed even when it is present in extremely small amounts as compared to other materials present in the end product. Accordingly, the presence of an unpleasant bitter taste is of serious concern in the food industry, and further may be problematic in other industries such as the medicinal and pharmaceutical industries. See, e.g., Dieckert et al., “Bitter Principles of the Peanut. Isolation, General Properties, and Distribution in the Seed,” Agric. & Food Chem., 6, 930-933 (1958); Dieckert et al., “Saponins of the Peanut: Isloation of Some Peanut Sapogenins and Their Comparison with the Soya Sapogenois by Glass-Paper Chromatography,” Arch. Biochem & Biophy, 82, 220-228 (1959); Price et al., “The Chemistry and Biological Significance of Saponins in Foods and Feedingstuffs,” Crit. Rev. Food Sce & Nutrit., 26, 27-49 (1987). The desire for improved palatability has prompted the development of numerous approaches for inhibiting, masking, or otherwise reducing bitterness so as to not affect the overall flavor in the resulting foodstuff. Such problems have been recognized for many years.
An example of previously employed methods to purify organic materials is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,477,480 to Seidel et al. for “Method Of Preparing A Clean Flavored Cereal Starch” issued Oct. 16, 1984, in which starch is treated with an alkali to remove objectionable flavor components. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,186 to Schara et al. for “Method Of Purifying Starches And Products Produced Therefrom” issued Aug. 2, 1988, ultrafiltration is used to purify starch. In both cases, flavor components are removed from the starch, in the '480 patent by solubilizing the flavor components so that they can be washed out of the relatively insoluble starch. In the '186 patent, ultrafiltration was used to remove the flavor components as permeate while the insoluble starch remained in an aqueous slurry.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,197,356 B1 to Girsh for “Process For Preparing Hypoallergenic Foods” issued Mar. 6, 2001, provides for a method for rendering common allergenic foods, including peanuts, hypoallergenic by heat treatment with a super critical fluid or gas (e.g., super critical carbon dioxide or liquid nitrogen). U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,984 to Kurihara et al. for “Taste-Modifying Method And Bitterness-Decreasing Method” issued Jul. 28, 1998, provides for a protein-lipid complex which, when added to food (including peanuts) or other compositions, decreases bitterness. The complex appears to mask the bitterness rather than eliminate it from the product. U.S. Pat. No. 5,766,622 to Nelson for “Inhibiting Undesirable Taste In Oral Compositions” issued Jun. 16, 1998, provides for a method of inhibiting an undesirable taste in food (including peanuts) and other compositions by the addition of a phosphorylated amino acid. U.S. Pat. No. 5,756,543 to Katsuragi et al. for “Bitterness-Relieving Agent” issued May 26, 1998, provides for a bitterness-relieving agent which can be added to food (including peanuts) and other compositions. The agent is an ester of a mono- or diglyceride with a polycarboxylic acid or a salt thereof. U.S. Pat. No. 4,211,694 to Youngquist for “Deflavoring Vegetable Seed Materials” issued Jul. 8, 1980, provides for a method for deflavoring vegetable seed materials (including peanuts) using a ternary single-phase solution of water, electrolyte, and carbohydrate. The solution has a water activity of less than about 0.9. The process can be carried out by suspending the seed material in the solution and mixing for about 10 minutes to about 24 hours at a temperature of about 0 to about 120° C. U.S. Pat. No. 3,998,800 to Youngquist for “Deflavoring Oleaginous Seed Protein Materials” issued Dec. 21, 1976, provides for a method for deflavoring oleaginous seed materials (including peanuts) using a single phase composition containing a non-polar oxygen-containing organic solvent (e.g., alcohol) and water. U.S. Pat. No. 3,947,599 to Mitchell, Jr. for “Process For Making Flavorless Food Extenders Derived From Peanuts, And A Method Of Recovering Peanut Oil” issued Mar. 30, 1976, provides for a method for preparing flavorless peanut flakes. This method comprises coarsely grinding blanched unroasted peanuts, mixing with water, forming a suspension of finely divided peanut particles and emulsified oil, drying the emulsion-suspension to form flakes, extracting oil from the flakes using an organic solvent (e.g., hydrocarbon), and removing residual solvent from the flakes.
As can be seen from the above summary, the problem of debittering peanut hearts has not been adequately addressed in the food processing arts. Moreover, none of the prior art specifically provides for debittering processes that take advantage of a water-based process for processing peanut hearts for human consumption. Inasmuch as peanut hearts generally are associated with an extremely bitter flavor, much more so than many other foodstuffs, it is not readily apparent that any known prior art processes could produce debittered peanut hearts.